# CVE-2025-38311: iavf: get rid of the crit lock

> A race condition in the iavf network driver causes deadlocks during VF removal, leading to system denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 10 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-65019, BELL-CVE-2025-38311, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38311, GHSA-g72f-6g67-w739, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38311, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38311, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38311, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38311

## What is CVE-2025-38311?

CVE-2025-38311 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Jul 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

iavf: get rid of the crit lock

Get rid of the crit lock.
That frees us from the error prone logic of try_locks.

Thanks to netdev_lock() by Jakub it is now easy, and in most cases we were
protected by it already - replace crit lock by netdev lock when it was not
the case.

Lockdep reports that we should cancel the work under crit_lock [splat1],
and that was the scheme we have mostly followed since [1] by Slawomir.
But when that is done we still got into deadlocks [splat2]. So instead
we should look at the bigger problem, namely "weird locking/scheduling"
of the iavf. The first step to fix that is to remove the crit lock.
I will followup with a -next series that simplifies scheduling/tasks.

Cancel the work without netdev lock (weird unlock+lock scheme),
to fix the [splat2] (which would be totally ugly if we would kept
the crit lock).

Extend protected part of iavf_watchdog_task() to include scheduling
more work.

Note that the removed comment in iavf_reset_task() was misplaced,
it belonged to inside of the removed if condition, so it's gone now.

[splat1] - w/o this patch - The deadlock during VF removal:
     WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
     sh/3825 is trying to acquire lock:
      ((work_completion)(&(&adapter->watchdog_task)->work)){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: start_flush_work+0x1a1/0x470
          but task is already holding lock:
      (&adapter->crit_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: iavf_remove+0xd1/0x690 [iavf]
          which lock already depends on the new lock.

[splat2] - when cancelling work under crit lock, w/o this series,
	   see [2] for the band aid attempt
    WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
    sh/3550 is trying to acquire lock:
    ((wq_completion)iavf){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: touch_wq_lockdep_map+0x26/0x90
        but task is already holding lock:
    (&dev->lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: iavf_remove+0xa6/0x6e0 [iavf]
        which lock already depends on the new lock.

[1] fc2e6b3b132a ("iavf: Rework mutexes for better synchronisation")
[2] https://github.com/pkitszel/linux/commit/52dddbfc2bb60294083f5711a158a

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38311?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38311?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38311 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38311 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38311 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38311 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Jul 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38311 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38311/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38311/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38311
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38311
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38311

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38311/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.